November 28, 2004

Burns like a red coal carpet

I just finished reading Bringing the War Home, by Jeremy Varon. It's a parallel narrative and analysis of the story of 60s-radical terrorism in the US and Germany, and it's by far the best thing on the subject that I have ever read. Many accounts of the phenomenon suffer from either an over-abundance of polemical bile, or from a sort of retrograde romantic infatuation with the "urban revolutionary" conceit. Though Varon appears to be broadly sympathetic to the notion of "social change" in its 60s articulation, this is no apologia. The dispassionate tone and absence of histrionics, in my view, render the story more rather than less dramatic and absorbing, though that may be a matter of taste. At any rate, I learned many details I hadn't known, and I found myself agreeing with many if not all of his readings.

Much of the Weather Underground material is drawn from recent interviews with the WU alumni. Many of the allusions and quotes reflecting these interviews are tantalizingly brief: I hope this material is published in full one day.

The account of the notorious 1969 WU "war council" in Flint, Michigan (the one where Bernardine Dohrn praised the Tate-La Bianca killings - "dig it! they killed those pigs!" - and where the young "revolutionaries" debated whether or not killing white babies would be a justified revolutionary tactic) manages to evoke the spirit of the event in a way achieved by none of the dozens of other accounts I have read. This results from the interleaving of plainly-expressed narrative with contemporary and retrospective comments from the participants in the context of a serious analysis of the collective psychosis at the heart of this segment of "the movement." (Whether and to what degree or extent this psychosis reflects something essential about "the movement" itself is a major theme of the book, which the author does not shy away from.) It's rather impressive.

Plus I learned some details about Flint that I hadn't been aware of:

(a) the hall had a giant papier maché gun hanging from the ceiling.

(b) there was a group sing-along of popular tunes with "revolutionary" lyrics. Example: "White Riot," sung to the tune of "White Christmas""

I'm dreaming of a white riot
just like the one October 8
when the pigs take a beating
and things start leading
to armed war against the state.

(c) there were karate classes taught by Tom Hayden!

Varon quotes a contemporary account from the Berkeley Tribe on the event: "I wanted to write an article on how to think about Weatherman. It can't be done." Actually, 35 years later, someone has in fact done it. For anyone who is at all interested in this topic, I strongly recommend this book. It is a fine piece of cultural and social history, and in some ways the quintessential book on the 60s.

Posted by Dr. Frank at November 28, 2004 04:27 PM | TrackBack
Comments

"I'm dreaming of a white riot
just like the one October 8
when the pigs take a beating
and things start leading
to armed war against the state."

Some things seem like satire they're so goofy.

I like the Clash's version better.


Posted by: Josh Maxwell at November 28, 2004 06:02 PM

Josh, so much of this stuff is beyond parody. But it was real. I wonder, in fact, whether the Clash's "White Riot" owes anything to the WU version. Those guys certainly weren't above copping chunks of previous iterations of "political" counter-culture for their lyrics.

Posted by: Dr. Frank at November 28, 2004 06:50 PM

frank, does the book talk much about the red army in germany? i'm kicking myself in the ass for not writing my thesis about them.

anyhow... the weather underground nostalgia irritates me. it seems like most of them "sold out" and joined the the machinery they were trying to destroy.

Posted by: kendra at November 29, 2004 01:30 AM

In response to Kendra's "sold-out", posting I have to agree. It's something you see in most revolutionary groups. Either they become "the machinery they were trying to destroy", like you said or they become so possessed and clouded by their initial set of beliefs they tend to become useless to any sort of change in plan and they usually just spin off into the ineffectual fringe of things. (I suppose their was no real reason to post this. Fires me up is all.)

Posted by: Mike at November 29, 2004 03:04 AM

mike, i think that the two extrems of the weather undeground was quite obvious from the film, which was good (albeit it frustrating at times). the same is true for the german leftist radicals who partook in terrorist activities during the 60s and 70s. every so often foreign minister joschka fischer's involvement in the red army is somewhat discussed.

Posted by: kendra at November 29, 2004 04:35 AM

Yeah, Kendra, half of Varon's book is about the R.A.F. He does a pretty good job of telling the stories and casting the analysis so that each illuminates things about the other. (By the way, if you're at all interested in the Fischer/Baader-Meinhof connection, you should definitely read Paul Berman's essay "The Passion of Joschka Fischer.")

Posted by: Dr. Frank at November 29, 2004 06:21 AM

i'll probably read varon's book next week after my thesis is dead and gone. thank's for the heads up on the berman essay. joschka fischer was something of a devisive topic in a lot of the leftist circles i hung out with in germany.

Posted by: kendra at November 29, 2004 07:42 AM

The Berman essay is soon to be published as book. I don't think it's out yet. It originally appeared in the New Republic in August of 2001.

Here's the link (though I think you have to be a tnr subscriber):

http://www.tnr.com/082701/berman082701_print.html

Posted by: Dr. Frank at November 29, 2004 03:22 PM

How old was Michael Moore in 1969? Could it be... Naaah.

Posted by: Lloyd at November 30, 2004 06:05 PM

At your prompting, I printed out Paul Berman's piece about the RAF in TNR. Yikes! 44 pages!

Posted by: vachon at December 2, 2004 02:53 AM

Kendra,

You are so right about selling out. If you look at the boomers who are being castigated for being so materialistic and greedy, they are the same ones who were active in the hippie generation, How times change!!

I attended a concert by Richie Havens in the early 90's and was astounded by all the BMW owners who attended and knew all the words and unfortunately sang along with all the songs. They also sat there and compared their kids and nannies and private schools and regimented activities for their kids on the breaks.

Do I sound cynical? You bet. They ended up being their own worst nightmares and still don't realize it.

Posted by: dick at December 5, 2004 06:15 AM

"They ended up being their own worst nightmares and still don't realize it."

Unless, maybe, just maybe, they were frauds all along?

Let's not rule that out.

Posted by: Lexington Green at December 8, 2004 06:08 AM